Overview
Television came to Pittsburgh in 1949 when WDTV (the forerunner of KDKA-TV) went on the air. Whereas many television stations in the United States began reading news on the air only to comply with FCC requirements, WDTV treated news seriously from day one with its first regular program, a local news show called ""Pitt Parade."" Today KDKA is still highly regarded among journalists for its news programming. Although television news may seem familiar to us, it was anything but familiar to the men and women of early television. Hinds shows how they borrowed liberally from newspapers, radio, motion picture newsreels, theater, and even magazines to create, by trial and error, suitable ways to present the news. Rather than instantly replacing radio, television news moved slowly from the ""rip and read"" radio-style format, which simply duplicated what came over the wire services and was in the newspapers, to the conventions of local newscasts we take for granted today--live remotes, lead and feature stories, sports and weather, all brought together by an in-studio anchor. Pittsburghers will recognize many familiar names in Hinds's account--Bill Burns, Paul Long, Florence Sando, Eleanor Schano, and others--veterans of Pittsburgh broadcasting whom Hinds has interviewed for this book. The story they tell is the story of dozens of other stations across the country. In the process, they tell us much about the early history of television in America. Lynn Boyd Hinds spent over twenty years in Pittsburgh television and radio before moving to Penn State University where he was an affiliate producer for WPSX-TV, the public broadcasting station in Central Pennsylvania. There he created and hosted the popular quiz show, ""The Pennsylvania Game."" Today he is Associate Professor of Broadcast News in the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism at West Virginia University.
Full Product Details
Author: Lynn Boyd Hinds
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
Imprint: Pennsylvania State University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.60cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.381kg
ISBN: 9780271024813
ISBN 10: 027102481
Pages: 204
Publication Date: 15 September 1995
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
The book provides an excellent foundation of history and understanding for broadcast news professionals, broadcast news students, and those interested in the early days of communications. It is well researched, well written, and well structured. -Journal and Mass Communication Quarterly
The book provides an excellent foundation of history and understanding for broadcast news professionals, broadcast news students, and those interested in the early days of communications. It is well researched, well written, and well structured. --Journal and Mass Communication Quarterly
The book provides an excellent foundation of history and understanding for broadcast news professionals, broadcast news students, and those interested in the early days of communications. It is well researched, well written, and well structured. </p> <em>Journal and Mass Communication Quarterly</em></p>
Author Information
Lynn Boyd Hinds spent over twenty years in Pittsburgh television and radio before moving to Penn State University where he was an affiliate producer for WPSX-TV, the public broadcasting station in Central Pennsylvania. There he created and hosted the popular quiz show, ""The Pennsylvania Game."" Today he is Associate Professor of Broadcast News in the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism at West Virginia University.
